“We are forced to win every week” says Marcelo Bielsa after five-star Leeds United display

The Whites were playing catch-up football having been knocked off the top of the Championship by West Bromwich Albion’s win over Derby County the previous evening. But their victory sent an emphatic message to the clubs hoping to catch them, and moved their goal difference ahead of the Baggies.

Stoke manager Michael O’Neill called Leeds the best team his relegation-threatened side had faced, and praised their pace and physicality.

Leeds will again play last at the weekend, and could be second again when they travel to Swansea City, but coach Bielsa insists it makes no difference.

“Whether we play before or after, we are forced to win every week,” he argued. “The fact that we know the other results doesn’t change anything. We are (always) forced to win.”

He also refused to attach any significance to the manner of the win, secured by a Mateusz Klich penalty and second-half goals from Helder Costa, Liam Cooper, Pablo Hernandez and Patrick Bamford.

“Every game is a new story,” he reflected. “What happened in the previous game does not define the next one. The confidence and security of a team are not linked 100 per cent with the previous result.”

Some of the football Leeds played in the second half, having broken Stoke’s backs-to-the-wall defending shortly before the interval, was wonderful to watch, but Bielsa refused to get swept up by it.

“It’s not exactly the right word ‘enjoy’,” said the Argentinian.

“I think it was a positive performance and the manager will always be happy if you have that sort of positive effort.”

Stoke are locked in a relegation battle with the likes of Barnsley, Hull City, Middlesbrough and Huddersfield Town, and O’Neill admitted they were up against it as soon as Tommy Smith gave away an unnecessary penalty by fouling Costa after 43 minutes.

Their whole gameplan was geared to stopping goals, not scoring them.

“When you give a team of this quality a leg-up as we did with the penalty, the second half was always going to be difficult,” he said. “It was a needless penalty – they are going away from goal.

“I’d be very surprised if they didn’t go up. They’re the best team we’ve played and physically we just couldn’t deal with them.

“I thought we couldn’t deal with them physically, we didn’t win many one-v-one duels all over the pitch.

“The pace at which they played in, particularly when they got ahead, it was difficult for us.

“I thought at times in the first half we gave a decent account of ourselves and we tried to stay in the game but against a team of that quality you can’t give them a leg up and we did that with the penalty.

“Once we went behind in the game it was always going to be very difficult for us.”

Leeds need another seven points from their four remaining games to secure promotion to the Premier League. West Brom are at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, when third-placed Brentford travel to Derby.

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